Not every Valentine's Day ends happily. With emotions running high, people can do drastic things in response to a perceived slight - and sometimes that drastic thing is murder. Take a look at...
- The Bloody-Handed Doctor
- The Bubble and Squeak Murder
- The Murderous Missionary
- Mr. Results
- Saved by Social Media
Be warned, this list deals with disturbing true crimes - for something lighter, try 12 Crazy Crimes (From the Louvre Heist to a Shark-Napping!)
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| These don't end well... (Nick Fewings) |
The Bloody-Handed DoctorDr. John Hamilton of Oklahoma had been married to his wife Susan for 14 years, buying her expensive presents and (by all accounts) being utterly devoted to her. Then on Valentine's Day in 2001, he made a frantic call to 911 - his wife had been injured and despite attempting CPR, he thought she was dead.
Responders to the scene found Susan lying in a blood-stained bathroom, strangled and bludgeoned to the point where her brain was exposed. Meanwhile, Hamilton had no blood on his mouth... despite his claims of performing CPR. Given the facial injuries sustained by Susan, something didn't add up.
Digging deeper, investigators discovered that the Hamilton family hadn't been quite so unified beneath the surface - John had been making calls to a topless dancer, whilst Susan had been mulling divorce.
The biggest twist came once matters went to court. The defense had brought in an expert who testified that the blood patterns on Hamilton were consistent with him trying to save his wife... but when examined under oath, he also stated that a blood spatter inside the defendant's cuff was consistent with John striking Susan in the head.
It took the previously sympathetic jury only a couple of hours to find Hamilton guilty.
The Bubble and Squeak Murder
On the evening of February 13, 2021, Penny and David Jackson were sitting down to a gourmet dinner... with one little hitch. Penny had decided to serve the meal with bubble and squeak (a simple fried cabbage and potato side dish) and David was not impressed.It was Penny's birthday and you'd think it would have been reasonable to bow to her wishes, but David started a row. Fast forward a few minutes and David is ringing the emergency services with stab wounds - only for the horrified dispatchers to hear him being stabbed again in real time. Penny then grabbed the phone and confessed that she had stabbed her husband three times.
Penny would go on to claim that she had been locked in a controlling and abusive relationship, and that this row had been the final straw. During the trial it came out that Penny had been in three previous marriages. She had accused her first husband of abuse, her second came out as gay, and her third left her because of her affair with David.
A witness (Penny's biological daughter) claimed that David had acted aggressively towards Penny in the past - including one occasion where he threatened her with a knife.
The jury found found Penny guilty of murder after 10 hours of deliberation, with Judge Martin Picton noting that she had shown absolutely no remorse over the murder. Even David's estranged daughter came forward to claim Penny had been the abuser in the relationship.
The Murderous Missionary
In 2013, Nathan Leuthold phoned the police in Peoria, Illinois, with a distinctly unlovely Valentine's Day message - he claimed to have been the victim of a home invasion. Responding officers found the body of his wife, Denise Leuthold, lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to her head.One thing that was obvious to the officers was that this was no simple botched burglary. A few kitchen drawers were on the floor and some of the cabinets were open, but otherwise the home was largely untouched.
Nathan Leuthold quickly became a person of interest in the investigation, especially since his search history brought up inquiries on how to muffle a firearm and how to knock someone out. The gunshot was also matched to a Glock 40; Leuthold had owned one of these guns, but it had "gone missing" before police could get their hands on it.
Based on the writings of his wife, it seems that the Leuthold marriage had been on the rocks. The pair had sponsored the entry of 20-year-old Aina Dobilaite to the United States during a trip to Lithuania, and police suspected the missionary was pursuing a relationship with the young girl - an entanglement that was complicated by his existing marriage.
The jury obviously found this theory compelling - Leuthold was convicted and his appeals dismissed.
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| I guess the name didn't specify what result... (Delaney Van) |
Mr. ResultsStacey Schoeck of Snellville, Georgia, didn't have romance in mind when she invited her fifth husband to a Valentine's Day tryst in 2010. Instead, she planned to have him murdered - using outsourcing.
Schoeck had been advised by workmate Lynitra Ross to hire local personal trainer Reginald Coleman (aka Mr. Results) to do the deed. Having suggested to her husband Richard that they exchange Valentine messages at a secluded and romantic spot, Stacey arranged for Mr. Results to wait in ambush before shooting Richard dead.
The whole deal was arranged in a Mexican restaurant, with Lynitra Ross negotiating on behalf of Coleman. Ross would gain a house and Coleman would be paid $10,000, whilst Schoeck stood to claim a $500,000 insurance payout from the murder.
Of course, the scheme fell apart when the law got involved. Schoeck admitted her guilt as part of a plea deal and turned against her co-conspirators to avoid the death penalty, Coleman pleaded guilty, and Ross was found guilty. All are serving life sentences.
Saved by Social Media
In Halifax, Canada, a group of neo-Nazis planned a mass shooting and suicide. Their target was the Halifax Shopping Centre, and the date was chillingly teased with a social media post: "Valentine's Day. It's going down."Those involved were a motley group that had connected on the internet. They shared a love of gore-infused imagery, nationalist sentiments, and a fetishization of true crime along with those that commit it. Lindsay Kantha Souvannarath, Randall Shepherd and James Gamble decided that they would commit their own atrocity, but were eventually foiled by a tip to Crime Stoppers.
It seems that the major flaw in their plan was their ego, as their thinly-veiled social media posts prompted a viewer to contact law enforcement. Police arrested Souvannarath and Shepherd as they met at the airport, whilst Gamble was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The two surviving conspirators were convicted and remain in prison to this day.
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